Scrubber for rubber bales



PltontedDoc. 20, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SCRUBBER FOR RUBBER BALES Vincent A. Rayburn, Baltimore, Md., assignor to Western Electric Company, Incorporated, New

York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application December 8, 1942, Serial No. 468,213 3 Claims. (Ci. 15-93) This invention relates to scrubbers for elastic articles and more particularly to apparatus for scrubbing crude rubber bales.

It is common practice to ship crude rubber in wooden containers and, in the handling of the rubber, slivers from the containers and other pieces of foreign matter become attached to the rubber, which, unless maintained wet, is tacky. In the ordinary manufacture of rubber articles, these foreign particles are not objectionable, but when the rubber is to be used as a high grade insulator, the particles of foreign matter must be removed from the rubber and heretofore this has been done by stripping the wrapper sheet from the bale and treating it in a scrubbing apparatus in which water is utilized to flush away the foreign matter while rolls work the rubber.

An object of the invention is to provide new and improved scrubbers for elastic articles.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an effective and simple apparatus for quickly cleaning foreign matter from the surfaces of crude rubber bales.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, there is provided a hand manipulated pneumatically driven twin head rotary comb wherein the teeth of the comb are hollow and are supplied with water under pressure to supply water for flushing foreign particles disturbed by the combs during their rotation and flush them from the surface of the rubber as well as to lower the friction between teeth of the comb and the surface of the rubber bale.

A better understanding of the invention may be had by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of an apparatus embodying the present invention showing the apparatus being used to clean a bale of crude rubber;

Fig. 2 is an end elevational view, partly in section, showing the details of the drive mechanism for the combs and the means for supplying water to the hollow teeth of the combs;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view, taken substantially along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1 in the direction of the arrows showing the drive connections in plan; and

Fig. 4 is a face view'of the combs taken substantially along the line 4-4 of Fig. 2 in the direction of the arrows.

Referring to the drawings, wherein like referenoe characters designate the same parts throughout the several views, it will be seenthat the apparatus is provided with a front handle Ill and a rear handle Ii, whereby the apparatus may be manipulated manually. Intermediate the handles it and H and connected thereto is a suitable air motor l2 adapted to be supplied with air under pressure for driving it through an air 2 inlet connection I! which communicates with the motor-i2 through the rear handle ll. As is usual in such motors, the speed of rotation thereof may be controlled by a throttle I4 conveniently located near the rear handle II. The air motor I2 is provided with a drive spindle I5, which extends through and is Journalled in the front handle ill. Fixed to the left end (Fig. 3) of the drive spindle is is a driving worm it, which engages and drives a pair of worm gears l1 and II in opposite directions. The worm gears l1 and It are mounted upon hollow shafts i9 and 20.

The drive spindle is is rotatable in a bearing 2| adjacent to the end of the spindle l5 and the bearing 2| is suitably mounted at the end of the front handle l0. Also fixed to the front handle I0 is an irregularly shaped casing 22 comprising a pair of turrets 23 and 24, which enclose and support the shafts I1 and it, respectively. The casing 22 is provided with a front aperture 25 normally closed by a closure member 28, whereby access may be had to the gear l8 and the end of the drive spindle it through the casing 22. Since the shafts l9 and 20 are of exactly the same construction and each of the turrets 213 and 24 have the same equipment mounted in them, only the turret 23 will be described in detail, together with the parts associated with it. Near its upper end, the turret 23 has a bearing 21 (Fig. 2) mounted in it for rotatably supporting the hollow shaft l9 and just below the level of the driving worm it, a second bearing 28 is provided for rotatably supporting the lower end of the hollow shaft IS. The bearing 28 is held in place in the'turret 23 by suitable bolts 29 and the bearings cooperate to support the hollow shaft l9 and prevent it from moving vertically, as viewed in Fig. 2, while permitting it to rotate. The upper end of the turret 23 has internal threads 35 formed in it for receiving a packing sleeve 36, which is, in turn, threaded, as shown at 31, to receive a coupling 38. The coupling 38 has the end of a flexible hose connection 19 threaded into it whereby water under pressure may be directed to the hollow shaft l9. Interposed between the packing sleeve 38 and the coupling 3B are a pair of sealing washers 40 and H. which serve to seal the hollow shaft l9 and hose connection 38. In addition to the washers 40 and M, suitable packing material, as shown at 42, is compressed between a shoulder 4,1 on the packing sleeve 35 and a threaded packing ring 44. In this manner, the hollow shaft I9 is in communication with the hose connection 39 and the bearings and drive mechanism for the shaft are sealed out of communication with the water to be supplied through the hose connection 39 to the hollow shaft ll.

A locking ring 50, which serves to hold the bearing 28 in the lower portion of the turret 23, is also provided with an annular packing ring Ii,

which bears against a tubular shouldered member 55, whichis suitably secured to and surrounds the bottom end of the hollow shaft 19 and will tend to prevent water fed through the shaft l9 from backing up into the bearings and driving apparatus. The lower end of the shaft 19 is threaded, as shown at 52, to receive a lock nut 53, which holds a comb supporting ring 54 against the shouldered member 55 whereby the shouldered member 55 will be forced into engagement with the portion of the bearing 28 which is fixed to the hollow shaft 19 to cause the comb supporting ring 54 to be rotated with the shaft. The comb supporting ring 54 is threaded, as shown at 56, to receive a hardened steel comb, designated generally by the numeral 51, which is preferably corrosion resistant. It will be understood that the construction thus far described in connection with the turret 23 is duplicated in the turret 24, which has a flexible hose connection 60 entering it and in communication with the hollow shaft and that the hollow shaft 20 will conduct fluid forced into it through the hose connection 60 down to a ,comb 6|. construction as the comb 51, except that the teeth of the combs are disposed oppositely so that when they are used in scrubbing a bale of crude rubber 62 (Fig. 1), the action of one comb will balance the torque action of the other and make the apparatus easierto handle. As will be seen by reference to Figs. 2 and 4, the combs 51 and 6| are provided with a plurality of hollow teeth 63, which extend downwardly. The teeth are provided with ports 5464, which terminate in passages 65 in communication with the outlet of the hollow shaft 19. The teeth of the comb are arranged in uniform rows along portions of chords with the rows being symmetric to the center of the heads and taper to blunt points whereby, when the combs are rotated, they will, in effect, scrub and stretch the surface of the bale 92 while directing water through their ports 53 onto the bale and the tangential arrangement of the teeth being in opposite directions, there will be very little tendency for the apparatus to creep" across the surface of the bale 62.

In practicing the invention, water under pressure may be directed through the hose connections 39 and 60 and hollow shafts l9 and 20 to the interior of the combs 51 and 6| and will then be directed out through the ports 64 in the teeth 63 of the combs. Since the rows of teeth 63 on the combs 51 and ti nearest to'each other are being moved away from each other, they stretch the portion of the bale 62 between these teeth to open up any wrinkles and folds in this portion of the bale and the water supplied by the ports 64 in the teeth flushes out the foreign matter previously held in the folds and wrinkles. An operator using the apparatus, after turning on the supply of water to the combs, may adjust the throttle It to drive the combs through the action of the spindle l5, driving worm i6 and worm gears l1 and I8 and may then scrub the surfaces of the The comb 61 is of the same What is claimed is:

1. A scrubber for rubber bales, which comprises a pair of hollow discs, a frame 'for mounting the discs closely and rotatably in a single plane and on parallel axes, means for rotating the discs in opposite directions, means for supplying cleaning fluid under pressure to the interior of the discs, and a plurality of perforated hard steel teeth projecting in uniform, symmetrical rows fromthe bottoms of the discs, each of said rows of teeth extending from a point near the center of that disc to a point near the periphery thereof, the perforations in the teeth being in communication with the interior of the disc, whereby the cleaning liquid flows through the perforations from th interior of the discs.

2. A scrubber for bales of rubber, which comprises a pair of disc-shaped scrubbing heads, a frame mounting the heads for rotation on closely spaced parallel axes and in substantially the. same plane, each scrubbing head having on the bottom thereof a plurality of hard steel teeth I provided with passages therethrough, and means bale 62. It has been found that the present ap- 5 paratus cleans the surface of the bale quite thoroughly and apparently the thorough cleaning of the surface is attributable, in great part, to the fact that the oppositely rotating heads stretch a'portion of the bale therebetween so that. the folds and wrinkles in this portion of the bale are opened and foreign matter previously enclosed therein is washed and scraped therefrom.

for rotating the scrubbing heads in opposite directions, said hard steel teeth being arranged in uniform rows extending inwardly from the peripheries of the scrubbing heads so that some of the rows of teeth on one of the heads are moved away from some of the rows of teeth on the other head to stretch material therebetween, whereby cleaning fluid forced through the passages flushes material stretched by the lastmentioned rows of teeth,-said rows being symmetrical with respect to the centers of the heads. 3. A scrubber for rubber bales, which comprises a pair of hollow scrubbing discs, a frame for mounting the discs for rotation on closely spaced parallel axes and in a single plane, means for rotating the discs in opposite directions, means for supplying a cleaning fluid to the interior of the discs, and a plurality of hard steel teeth hav-' ing passages formed therethrough secured to the bottoms of the discs in rows which extend chord-; ally from the inner portions of the discs to the peripheries thereof, some of the rows of teeth on one disc being moved away from some of the rows of teeth on the other disc as the discs are rotated, whereby the portion of elastic material between the rows of teeth being moved apart is stretched, the passages in the teeth connecting the interiors of the, discs with the exteriors thereof, whereby the cleaning fluid flows through the passages from the interiors of the discs.

VINCENT A. RAYBURN REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Vidal Aug. 8, 1930 

